secret fed loans gave banks $13 billion undisclosed to congress

According to a recent Bloomberg article, the Federal Reserve allegedly gave out approximately $7.77 trillion in secret loans and guarantees to banks throughout the financial crisis of 2007 to 2009.

What I found even more interesting, however, is the article also notes that, among other things, “Total assets held by the six biggest U.S. banks increased 39 percent to $9.5 trillion on Sept. 30, 2011, from $6.8 trillion on the same day in 2006, according to Fed data.” Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown is quoting as saying: “When a few banks have advantages, the little guys get squeezed… That, to me, is not what capitalism should be.” Except that’s precisely how capitalism is, and always has been.

The capitalist mode of production, which forms the economic base of our society, is, in effect, the process of commodifying, privatizing, and monetizing goods, service, ideas, etc.; and which, by its very nature, promotes the concentration of wealth and power, primarily into the hands of the owners/controllers of capital. It’s working exactly as it’s supposed to work, and the Fed is merely one of the institutionalized tools capital uses to displace inherent contradictions within the system in an effort to limit and/or stave off crises.

If this article doesn’t piss you off and start to make you question whether we can do better, it probably should.